Introduction
While planning my visit to South-East Asia, I had a hard time deciding which of the countries to go to. Vietnam had a unique appeal to me, for two reasons. First – it has been relatively culturally isolated from the rest of South-East Asia, resulting in a unique food, clothing and language leaning towards Chinese influence. Second – Vietnam was colonized by the French, resulting in the dominance of coffee-culture (instead of tea) with croissants and baguettes (banh mi) on the menu.
In recent years, the image of Vietnam has been overwhelmingly determined by the Vietnamese Civil War (called ‘The Vietnam War’ in the US), and this has eclipsed everything else about the country, and it made me curious to discover the roots of Vietnam and its history and beauty beyond just that.
The Old Quarter
Hanoi is the capital city of Vietnam and has visible history going back to medieval times. I found it to be a city of temples and pagodas, of French balconies with coffee to sip on, of street-food hawkers wearing the conical Non-la hats selling noodles and grilled meat, and of office-commuters navigating narrow alleyways on tiny vespas and tuk-tuks (called cyclos here).
The city grows from its centre – the Hoan Kiem Lake. It was here that the General Le Loi found a magical sword, and using it, drove away Chinese invaders in 1400s. Afterwards, he returned the divine sword to a sacred turtle appeared out of this lake. I strolled around this lake, enjoying some Green Rice Ice-Cream (made with fragrant baby-rice).
The houses in Hanoi are called “Tube-Houses”. This is because in older times, they were taxed according to the width of the frontage visible on the streets. In response, people made long narrow houses shaped like tubes, and expanded them vertically generation after generation.
This old merchant quarter has 36 streets – each street inhabited by a specific single guild of craftsmen. There is a street where folks only sell grilled fish, another one selling bamboo products, another one selling lanterns and hand-fans. There are more streets selling metal-work, wood-work, and offerings for ancestors like hell-money, which are burned, so one’s ancestors can use them after death.
A large part of experiencing Hanoi is just walking these streets and getting lost in them. I noticed that every other house had vines of bougainvillea on the walls, balconies of potted plants, and small gardens with banyan, papaya and banana trees. It was also not uncommon to hear pet birds, chirping from bird-cages of different shapes and colours.
Temples and Pagodas
Hiding within the streets of this city, I found many narrow entrances that grew into wide courtyards inside nestling temples in tranquil spaces. There are both temples dedicated to the old folk religion that venerates heroes and ancestors as well as Buddhist pagodas. Along with these, I also stumbled upon old mercantile assembly halls, temples dedicated to Confucius, and traditional houses turned into cultural museums.
Aside from these smaller neighbourhood temples, I recommend two bigger ones – both near the West Lake district.
One is the Tran Quoc temple. This has tall towering pagodas in a serene spot by the water. While Buddhist monks have lived since ancient times. there is also syncretic worship of Mau (mother-deities) from the folk Vietnamese religion. Inside the complex, is a planted cutting of the original Bodhi Tree from India (under which the Buddha attained enlightenment).
The second one, quite nearby at the southern shore of the lake, is the Quan Than Temple. This is a large complex with beautiful gardens and lots of shrines inside. The main one has a large black-stone statue of Thran Vu – the Northern defender of Hanoi (there are also temples around Hanoi for the eastern, southern and western defenders of the city).
The temple rules for Vietnam were simple. One had to keep right while entering through the side-door. There were several thresholds, and the last threshold where the deity is placed required removing of shoes and hats. Modest clothing was required like any other religious place.
I have been to several temples in India and Japan. One thing which popped out to me was the unusual offerings. Here, the deities were not only given fruits, but also a lot of packaged products like cookies, chips and soda. It wasn’t unusual to see even beer, wine, whiskey and cigarettes amongst the offerings. Vietnamese deities appeared to be more open-minded and I loved that.
The Temple of Literature started as a shrine to Confucius and grew into Vietnam’s imperial university in 1000s. Here, a large number of scholars wrote gruelling civil-service examinations to graduate into official mandarins. There are motifs of carp-fishes in the rivers swimming upstream to turn into dragons – an old folk-tale used as a metaphor for these officers.
Today, this tranquil space is an urban respite, with pools of lotus blossoms and leaf-pads in grassy courtyards and large frangipani and banyan trees having their trunks intertwined with the walls and gates. Here, a large number of photo-sessions are held for graduating classes of various schools and colleges in the city, I saw students showing off their suits and Ao-Dais in the same place where ancient scholars graduated before them.
In the upcoming posts, I will write about the beautiful coffee culture in Hanoi, museums and cultural experiences, and day-trips to rural Vietnam with rice-fields, boats and mountains.
Thank you taking me on this wonderful, colorful tour! The city seems very vibrant. 😎😊
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